Guatemalan Ruano Oliva wins first gold medal in country’s history
Guatemala, a country of more than 17 million people, celebrated its first Olympic gold medal on Wednesday when Adriana Ruano Oliva set a record to win the women’s clay pigeon shooting event.
Ruano Oliva, 29, broke 45 clays to break the Olympic record of 43 set by Zuzana Rehák-Štefečeková of Slovakia in 2021.
“I can’t believe it’s real. I’m so happy. I feel honored to be here, and it wasn’t easy to come back here. I want to thank Guatemala, and also my father,” Ruano Oliva said Wednesday. Her father died in 2021, three weeks before she competed in the Tokyo Olympics.
Her performance was praised worldwide, including by Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo.
“Guatemala’s Olympic history is written in gold letters thanks to Adriana Ruano,” he wrote on social media in Spanish.
The Olympic history of Guatemala describes the story of Adriana Ruano. First medal for the Olympic Games in Guatemala, the first time for new país.
¡Felicidades, Adriana! 🇬🇹🥇 photo.twitter.com/glneYos2ng
— Bernardo Arévalo (@BArevalodeLeon) July 31, 2024
Up to 2024, Guatemala had participated in 14 Olympic Games with only one medal. Érick Barrondo won silver in the 20-kilometre race walk in London in 2012.
The country tripled that total in two days. Ruano Oliva’s gold came a day after Jean Pierre Brol won bronze in the men’s event.
Guatemala also competed in one Winter Olympics (1988), but failed to win a medal in the alpine or cross-country skiing events after sending six athletes. They first sent athletes to the Summer Games in 1952 and did not return to the Olympics until 1968, when they sent a national record of 48 athletes.
For Ruano Oliva, her 2024 victory marks an incredible personal comeback, as she suffered a back injury in 2011 as a 16-year-old that ended her gymnastics career and prompted her to take up shooting.
“When I got my injury (in 2011), I had nothing. I started to get desperate and frustrated,” Ruano Oliva said after her victory. “That’s when the door opened for me with this sport.”
Her gold also marks a remarkable Olympic comeback. She entered the 2021 qualifying round in Tokyo with a heavy heart, finishing 26th out of 26 shooters.
Before Paris, Ruano Oliva won gold at the Pan American Games and silver at the World Cup and Continental American Championships. She entered this summer ranked 31st in the world by the International Shooting Sport Federation.
Ruano Oliva cries after becoming the first gold medalist from Guatemala in Olympic history. (Photo: Alain Jocard / AFP)
Ruano Oliva went from last to first in the two-Olympic Games, beating Italy’s Silvana Stanco, who took silver with 40 targets hit. With gold secured after hitting her 43rd target, Ruano Oliva wept through her remaining shots as Guatemalan flags waved in the stands.
And for the first time in Olympic history, Guatemala’s national anthem, “Himno Nacional de Guatemala,” was played last during the medal ceremony.
(Photo: Alain Jocard/AFP via Getty Images)
